Engaging Audiences in the digital age
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This document provides guidance on engaging audiences in a digital age from a Christian perspective. It discusses how God is a communicating God and encourages authentic engagement with audiences online through various social media platforms. Key principles emphasized include being interesting, encouraging, active, helpful and authentic in online interactions, guided by biblical values such as the fruits of the spirit and sharing with grace. The document offers numerous examples and resources for effective digital communication and engagement.
Engaging Audiences in the digital age
- 1. ENGAGING AUDIENCES IN A DIGITALAGE Dr Bex Lewis Research Fellow in Social Media and Online Learning, CODEC, Durham University Director, Digital Fingerprint @drbexl @digitalfprint @bigbible @ww2poster Hope Amidst Uncertainty Conference, Writtle College Image Credit: RGBStock
- 2. Image Credit: Facebook Meme
- 3. Letās ātweetā each otherā¦ Image Credit: iStockphoto
- 4. Twitter Spokesperson: ā¢ Twitter brings you closer to the things you are passionate about - and for millions of people across the globe that is faith. ā¢ http://news.sky.com/story/10228 00/senior-bishops-to-tweet- christmas-sermons
- 5. Rev Prof David Wilkinson God is a communicating God: āIn the beginning was the word, and the word was Godā¦ā. God is extravagant in communication ā he is not a silent God who has to be tempted into communicating with people. Image Credit: Durham University
- 6. Who is your audience? http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/mjQsEks/Theatre+Seats
- 7. A āGood News Storyā http://bigbible.org.uk/2012/10/a-good-news-story-murielsowden/
- 8. What do you want them to DO?
- 9. OFTEN: Donāt look to āPUBLISHā but to āCONVERSEā Image Credit: SXC.Hu
- 10. Craig von Buseck, Netcasters, 2010
- 11. Craig von Buseck, Netcasters, 2010
- 12. Image Credit: Seed Resources
- 13. NOT Virtual/Real Image Credit: Stockfresh
- 17. Some Creative Usesā¦ Image Credit: Stockfresh
- 22. Copyright, etcā¦ ā¢ Really important to be aware ofā¦!! Image Credit: iStockphoto
- 24. Image Sources, e.g. ā¢ FREE ā¢ Flickr Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons ā¢ http://www.sxc.hu ā¢ http://rgbstock.com ā¢ http://seedresources.com (3 a week) ā¢ http://www.freebibleimages.org ā¢ PAID ā¢ http://stockfresh.com/ ā¢ http://iStockPhoto.com Image Credit: Stockfresh http://bigbible.org.uk/about/policies/image-policy/
- 27. Human Beings at Machines, not āaremachinesā ā¦ Image Credit: Stockfresh
- 28. Whoās my audience? ā¢God ā¢Parents ā¢āThe kidsā ā¢The newspaper ā¢Your worst enemy
- 30. Luke 6:45 (NIV) A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
- 31. Authenticity Image Credits: Seed Resources/ @digitalfprint
- 32. āIfanalien visitedā¦ā ā¦ and all they had to see was your Facebook page (or other āpublicā profile).. What would their perception of your life be? Image: RGB Stock
- 33. Identify your Keywords: āThe Long Tailā Image Credit: InboundNow
- 38. Preaching (& other speaking) How might our approach to preaching change if we understand that we have two audiences ā the faithful who sit close to us and a broader public, listening-in from a distance? Image Credit: SXC.Hu
- 41. Push/Pull Mediaā¦ Image Credit: Stockfresh
- 45. Worldās 2nd Largest Search Engine: Image Credit: Searchingmobile.com
- 46. Increasingly Mobileā¦ Image Credit: Stockfresh
- 48. So, do I need to worry about Google+? https://plus.google.com/u/0/104673457166214487444/
- 50. Agree a (flexible) Social Media Policy Image credit: SXC.Hu
- 51. http://www.methodist.org.uk/ministers-and-office- holders/technology-and-church/social-media- guidelines ā¢ The Methodist Church social media policy: ā¢ Be credible. Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent. ā¢ Be consistent. Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation. ā¢ Be cordial, honest and professional at all times. Be responsive. When you gain insight, share it where appropriate. ā¢ Be integrated. Wherever possible, align online participation with other communications. ā¢ Be a good representative of the Methodist Church. Remember that you are an ambassador for Christ, the Church and your part of it. Disclose your position asāØa member or officer of the Church, making it clear when speaking personally. Let Galatians 5:22ā26 guide your behaviour (fruits of the spirit). ā¢ Be respectful: respect confidentiality. Respect the views of others even where you disagree.
- 52. http://twitterforchurches.com/blog/2009/06/29/ crisis-communications-for-the-social-media- age/ Donāt overthink. Running through committees, endless drafts and approval processes to get a response out there can cause far more damage than good. As long as you have taken the time to assess the situation and can take a rational, respectful tone in your response, even an awkward response is OK to start with, and buys you time to continue to respond to the problem.
- 53. Principles of Good Engagement ā¢Be interesting ā¢Be encouraging ā¢Be active ā¢Be helpful ā¢Be authentic
- 55. What Biblical values do we want to see in our (digital) world? Image Credit: iStockPhoto
- 56. What do the fruits of the spirit look like online? Image Credit: Kezi
- 57. What does it mean to share with grace? Image Credit: Seed Resources
- 58. Where do you plan to go now? Image Credit: Stockfresh
- 59. @drbexl @digitalfprint @bigbible http://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/ Image Credit: iStockPhoto
Editor's Notes
- #2: 45 minute session before lunchā¦
- #3: This is what many people think the internet is about ā¦ just a big ātimesuckā, but thankfully the attitude is changing ā¦ and I hope that as youāve invited me here ā your attitude is changing tooā¦
- #4: Social Media ā all about RELATIONSHIPS, so we are going to start by getting to know each other as if we are on Twitter.
- #5: Ability to connectā¦ and communicateā¦
- #6: We are created by a God who rejoices in our 2-way communication with himā¦ we are called also to be extravagant communicatorsā¦So if weāre going to communicate on Godās behalf (individually/as organisations) ā¦ what do we need to think about?Image taken from Durham University website.
- #7: So if weāre going to think about how weāre going to engage our audience ā¦ FIRST we need to think who they are ā¦ young people? Old people? Stage of life? Education? Faith background? Likely questons, etcā¦
- #8: e.g. the audience here are just mums, cold, etc ā members of the church (seeing church as people) have seen a problem and found a solution ā there was no āulterior motiveā here ā just reaching out/welcoming, but there has been a group of people who now have questions about faith, etc. and church membersā¦. So think about what your community wants/needs?
- #9: Secondly ā think what do you want that audience to do ā¦ not necessarily in a ābuyā, etc way ā¦
- #10: Not PUBLISHING, but looking for CONVERSATIONS/relationship building.. We started with that exercise as a chance to get to know a little something about someone else ā we donāt need to know it all .. But we connect over shared interestsā¦
- #11: For the last 200+ years we have grown used to this model of ministry (in preaching, and in much of our other communications) (and Iād question if the arrows are even coming back the other wayā¦)
- #12: ā¦ but the digital environment allows much more of this. Some people talk about a flattening of hierarchy, but although the digital allows more people to have their say, I would still say it is the āknownā and the ācelebrityā that get read more!
- #13: We need to understand āthe cultureā that we are engaging withā¦ same as if you went on mission overseasā¦
- #14: Important in our thinking on this is the notion that we are talking about āonline/offlineā, not āvirtualārealā ā¦ relationships online have a different nature, but they are as valid and real as offline relationships, and for many the edges are entirely blurred as conversations online in between face-to-face meets change the nature of offline conversations (sometimes allowing for deeper conversations in either space)ā¦
- #15: Remember the SOCIAL in social media (not so much the ātechnologyā) ā see people/users feature on this globeā¦
- #16: 4 mins (time to watch?)
- #17: ā¦ but when weāre talking about āthe internetā and even āsocial mediaā ā we have to remember that itās not something homogenous .. If you want to know more ā download this 6-7 page document I try to keep updated.. , and youāll see different tools are use for different things!
- #19: Chris Juby ā reducing every chapter to 140 characters ā¦ did this personally, but decided to send out a local press release ā got picked up by national & international press ā got lots of people engaged with the Bible ā even if they were only interested in language/the novelty of what he was doneā¦ itās still a touchpoint (online = lots of touchpoints)ā¦
- #20: Phil, whoās here somewhere ā¦ summarised entire Bible in around 9000 charactersā¦ makes you think about what itās really about.
- #21: ā¦ and weāre been playing with what each Bible chapter looks like as a wordle ā where the bigger the word, the more times itās mentioned in a chapterā¦
- #22: .. And this ties into an increasingly āvisual turnā online ā particularly with the advent of Pinterest which gained popularity at the beginning of 2012 ā with people sharing inspiring pictures (and the picture links to the website behind it).
- #23: If going to use imagesā¦
- #24: Can give rights to people ā e.g. this is the licence I give to all my workā¦ and means others can use my work Must attributeā¦
- #26: Or make your ownā¦ Steve uses more regularly than I do ā¦ esp in sharing church activities more widelyā¦
- #27: ā¦ allow people to communicate the joy that they see before themā¦ as we did on our recent Tearfund tripā¦
- #28: ā¦ in all of this we want to remember that we are talking about āhuman beings at machinesā nor replaced by āhuman beings as machinesā.
- #29: Who do I think of before I publish anything?
- #30: Think about what your story is, how youāre going to tell it ā¦
- #32: Come to know yourself, what gifts and passions God has given you, and look to live those out authentically & with integrity onlineā¦ what I call a ādigital fingerprintā ā you were made to be unique, so be unique ā¦ and look for others to engage with in that areaā¦
- #33: We may be the only Bible that some people ever see ā¦ What do your priorities appear to be? Does God seem to have a place in your life? Demonstrate life as it is, rather than how you wish it would beā¦ Relentlessly positive? How do we also share some of the difficulties of life ā be real, allow people to connect with us [some of best sermons Iāve ever heard are people telling me are how theyāve dealt with difficult timesā¦ demonstrated that they are still pursuing the answersā¦ ]ā¦ sentences end in a question rather than in a full stop?http://www.rgbstock.com/photo/2dQMJYj/We+Are+Not+Alone
- #34: Choose some search terms to search for yourself, that you think people might be searching for, etc. and use as the basis of how youāre going to develop your contentā¦ http://www.inboundnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/b2b_long_tail.gif
- #35: e.g. Google can see whatās āhotā right now ā is it worth trying to engage in that conversation? Can also see related termsā¦
- #36: ā¦ and Google adwords keyword tool will give further ideasā¦
- #37: ā¦ people ARE seeking God online! So how can we help them find him?
- #38: Blogs are very busy (often part of a websiteā¦)
- #39: Many of us are not āpreachersā ā but we may have those who we think want to listen to us, but also our other friendsā¦
- #40: e.g. quite a few people use the hashtag #sermon ā how much insight would this give people into our church life (which should be seen outside the walls)ā¦
- #41: Get those of your organisation passionate about what you are doing, and then they are likely, with passion, to share with their friends (e.g. me & sermons) = look at the numbers involvedā¦
- #42: Thinking through how things have changed ā we donāt PUSH the message at people ā we seek to be intriguing and draw them inā¦ even more so we want people to be our ābrand ambassadorsāā¦
- #43: A friend of mine set this up less than a year ago ā images are highly shareable and gently poke fun at Anglicanism ā truly inside jokes many of them, but they work! Now about 2k likes ā¦ also picked up by another page with 1000s of likes (so old power structures still work online)..
- #44: .. Which I think is summed up nicely here.
- #45: How much can we find out about people ā how many people can we reach ā not the hugest of numbers, but think compared to average congregationā¦ is a bit of a game of numbers.. But 700 is considerably more than many churches have ā¦
- #46: Many people look here firstā¦ (also some audio ā e.g. podcasts)
- #47: Donāt forget that huge numbers of people are only connecting via their mobile phones ā¦ Google search dropping because people looking through apps, etc. for information right here, right now ā¦ can you ENCOURAGE people to check into church etc (and not just church!) .. Similarly encourage them to tweet, Facebook, etc as part of the (or after) the serviceā¦
- #48: May not watch (3 mins) but recommend worth seeingā¦
- #49: 2nd largest numbersā¦ linked in with Google SEOā¦ questionable how real all that action isā¦
- #50: Help people understand ā¦ if churches have e.g. wifi = a great venue to get people in and aware of church ā¦ http://bigbible.org.uk/2012/10/social-media-surgery-interview-with-watfordgap-cnmac12/
- #51: If you are working for an organisation ā e.g. a church ā ensure that people can feel āfreeā to go ahead and represent you ā¦not having
- #52: See e.g. from Methodist Church
- #54: ā¦ and donāt forget the cat.
- #55: Leaving you with some questions to think aboutā¦
- #56: Something to leave you thinking about ā¦ āwhat Biblical values do we want to see in our (digital) world?ā (digital in brackets, as itās part of our whole worldā¦) ā¦
- #57: ā¦ what do the fruits of the spirit look like online ā what does it mean to be patient & self-control ā¦ do we need to hold back from posting that thought at the moment we think it?
- #58: .. In particular what does it mean to share with āgraceā ā¦ we want to be invited to share, but we also want to ensure that we respond to things āgracefullyā ā this doesnāt mean like a doormat but not flinging around some of the insults that I can see from people online at different ends of Biblical interpretationā¦
- #60: So ā what do you think? What does it make you think about engaging online, how we share our faith, how we make Jesus real to people?